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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26437072">High Hopes Low Bandit HP Sequel</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldstone_Wolf/pseuds/Goldstone_Wolf'>Goldstone_Wolf</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>High Hopes Low (Blank) [69]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dungeons &amp; Dragons (Roleplaying Game), High Hopes Low Rolls (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fire, Gen, I beg of you, Implied/Referenced Major Character Injury, Injury, Mentions of Murder, Near Death Experiences, The Rest of High Hopes are There too, anyways happy anniversary to episode one!, at it again with the uncreative names can you tell how tired I am?, implied/referenced near character death, it wouldn't matter anyways death is pretty cheap in dnd, mentions of attempted murder, mentions of being buried alive, okay not usually but often enough give me some credit, recovering from injuries, they're just not as big, tws for:, usually, yes the weird spacing is on purpose i know what i'm doing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:40:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>843</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26437072</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldstone_Wolf/pseuds/Goldstone_Wolf</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Paddy wakes up back in camp, exhausted and covered in dirt and probably a little sick but alive. </p>
<p>Also, happy first anniversary to Chapter One!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Malark Dundragon/Paddock "Paddy" Whitlaw, hints of</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>High Hopes Low (Blank) [69]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1692196</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>High Hopes Low Bandit HP Sequel</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>TWs in tags, sequel to the story listed in the title (aka “High Hopes Low Bandit HP”). Sorry, I got lazy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>          He woke up with the bitter taste of dirt and earth in his mouth and a hoarse, dying scream clawing its way through his throat.</p>
<p>          “Whoa, Paddy!” A hand pressed against his back and he started coughing harder, tears streaming down his face. Someone held him upright, and he kept coughing until he swore he was going to hack up his lungs or his stomach. He didn’t care which—he had to get that taste out of his mouth. “Hey, hey, you’re alright. You’re alright.”</p>
<p>          Rolling onto his side, eyes burning, he looked at who was talking. It was Zada, and she helped cradle his head and support it as he laid back down. Coughing, he tried rasping out a few words. Nothing came. He started clawing weakly at his throat, wheezing, and she glanced up when someone came over. “What’s going on? Zada?”</p>
<p>          “I thought you said he was fine!” A distant, familiar voice shouted, and Paddy sucked in a few breaths. After a moment, he realised it was Malark. Currently, Nagar and Gimgar had their hands full with the assassin, holding onto his arms as tightly as possible and holding him back from Zada.</p>
<p>          “I said he was alive. I can still help him, but not if you’re attacking me over what I’m doing <em>to </em>help him.” She fired back, and Malark scowled back at her. Brio went over and said something to him. When Nagar and Gimgar let him go, he stormed into the woods. Paddy watched him for as long as he could, sucking in breaths through a sore throat. Swallowing felt like someone was stabbing him in the hinge of his jaw with a shard of ice, pain spiking out with every breath or movement. “Hold still, Paddy. We got some potions from the closest town while you were out. This’ll help minimise the pain.” She held up one, but he couldn’t see the contents. “Mina, Terra, help him sit up a little, please. I don’t want him to choke. Gimgar, Nagar, go after Malark with Brio and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.” As the others scattered, he caught a glimpse of Ryce and Ava keeping guard as they talked and basked in the sunlight streaming down on a sunny rock. Terra stroked his hair back from his face, and he caught a glimpse at his hands. There was dirt smudged on the back of them, on his clothes. Earth and grime were caught under his nails.</p>
<p>          By then, Zada was holding the potion, now uncapped, to his lips and helping him to drink it. It was a few moments of pained cries and a vain fight to get away before he gave up and let her pour it down his throat. It didn’t help with the pain, it really stung first and then got worse long before the feeling began fading away.</p>
<p>          They gave him a few more, and then he dropped into unconsciousness again.</p>
<p>         </p>
<p>         </p>
<p>          When he stirred, he was in an inn room, Zada waiting at his side while someone—Malark, he realised after a moment of hearing the consistent, pantherlike tread—paced the floor. He cracked open his eyes, fought harder than he should have for such a simple task, and then turned to look at her. She noticed, coaxed some water and potions into him, and then some soup. It was easier—his throat didn’t ache with every breath—but he couldn’t stop shivering. Asking for a blanket was ignored, and he rolled onto his side and noticed Malark pausing to watch him, concerned, every few pacings. The dirt under Paddy’s nails was gone, his hands were cleaner. A small part of him wondered how that had gone down—who’d helped him with that and why.</p>
<p>          Taking a breath, he closed his eyes again and let the darkness surround him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>          Walking was harder than it used to be, but he guessed that had more to do with the fact he had been choked, beaten into unconsciousness, and then buried alive. His ribs had cracked, he’d had to deal with dragonborn venom, and then he was just…sick. From swallowing a bunch of dirt and everything.</p>
<p>          For the moment, he was lying with his head in Malark’s lap, watching leaves underneath them as they drifted idly by on the creek below his and Malark’s bridge. The assassin’s fingers were in his hair and he closed his eyes, taking a breath even with his achy ribs. It was quiet, and it was nice. He was safe. Everything was going to be fine. “You still awake?” Malark asked, voice hushed, and Paddy glanced up to see him looking down at him. A soft smile crossed Paddy’s face, and he was pretty sure Malark returned it. Another second passed, and Paddy felt Malark’s hand wrap around his, gently rubbing his palm and fingers in a soothing way.</p>
<p>          A little way away, Mina and Terra let out twin cheers as the fire they had been trying to start for the past half hour <em>finally </em>spat to life.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I might come back and re-do this just a little bit in the future, so I’ll let you know when I fix it properly. Anyways, I am super tired and I need to do some work on yet another book (Vanguard’ll be out soon, for those of you who are interested or even know what I’m talking about; I just need to get an author copy sent my way and then…yeah. It’ll be fun, there might be some random fics about it on here with scenes I can’t put into the actual book because they’re “not for kids” and I don’t want my family members reading something so obviously queer).<br/>Anyways, thank you for reading. I love you, and I will see you in the next fic!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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